Lesson Summary: By the end of this lesson, one should be familiar with graphing parabolic functions given an equation and writing the equations of parabolas given some information. One should know that there are two types of parabolic equations a vertical and a horizontal parabolic equation. If a>0, the graph will point wither up or to the right, and if a<0 then the graph will either point down or to the left. Furthermore, the focus is always located inside of the function and is the same distance (p) as the vertex is from the directrix. If one draws a parallel line to the directrix  through the focus, one will get 2p. Moreover, a = (+ or -) 1/4p and p = |1/4a|.